Industrial Packing and Crating in Vancouver

Getting down and dirty with transloading: Part II

In our last entry, we have introduced you to the beginning of ten tips that will help you when you become involved with transloading services. Below is the continuation of our last entry:

Tip 4: Pair crossing and deconsolidation with transloading

It makes sense to add a cost-cutting supply chain function to the shipping process when you are already re-handling shipments by utilizing transloading services. To do so, consider deconsolidating the contents of your shipments into separate trailers destined for multiple locations and combine goods with other ships bound for the same destination. You can do this instead of transferring all the goods to one domestic trailer bound for one destination from an ocean container. Or, better yet, why not use a direct-ship/DC bypass program? It may do wonders for your business to ship directly to the end customer using inbound freight trains and then transload and ship the balance to your company’s distribution centre. Transloading would allow you to add value to your services such as labeling for direct-to-customer shipments.

Tip 5: Set a time

Shipping is a time-consuming process. All the unloading, handling, and reloading of goods can take a lot of time. You should allow at least 48 hours for a transload turnaround. In fact, it could take up to 72 hours from the time an ocean container is available at port to the time it finally leaves the facility of transloading. It would be therefore important to consider the transloading time in your final estimates.

Tip 6: Recognizing the limitations of transloading

While transloading is a great process, it may not be suitable for all shipments. There will be additional costs when it comes to rehandling products and this may even surpass the savings that come with transloading services, even for importers from the East Coast, who usually have shorter ground transit times than their West-Coast counterparts due to that they are closer to their end users. Also, it would be important to factor in the features of the products, such as their shape, weight, and sizes. If they are fragile or irregularly-shaped, they would not be suitable for transloading.

Transloading is a great service that can save your business time and money. It is a popular way to handle goods and we have established ourselves as the preferred facility for this service. Should you be interested in contracting our services, please refer to our page for more detail